Lail: Fairly Predictable

Matt Lail

02/20/2004

I'm not very proud to admit it, but I missed Wednesday
night's NC State basketball game at Clemson because I
received a free pass to watch a screening of a new
movie.

I'm not very proud to admit it, but I missed Wednesday
night's NC State basketball game at Clemson because I
received a free pass to watch a screening of a new
movie. (Hey, I may make poor decisions at times, but
passing up a free flick is not one of them.) The
strange thing is I wasn't concerned about missing the
game, though I'm not sure which thought process I used
to rationalize it. Was I so convinced that the Pack
would win going away that I need not watch? Or did the
sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach warn me that
I should avert my eyes from the tube? In hindsight,
it was probably the latter.

Either way, I elected to catch the movie, "Euro Trip."
(By the way, if you liked "Old School" and "Road
Trip," you'll love it; if you liked "The English
Patient," stay the hell away.) In the movie, the
protagonist, Scotty, has just graduated high school
when he is unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend
("Smallville's" Kristin Kreuk) for being "so
predictable." In a un-Scotty like decision our hero,
along with his slacker-yet-law-intern buddy Cooper,
heads across the Pond to get into all sorts of crazy,
whacky misadventures.

While the movie itself was formulaic and predictable,
and often uproariously funny, it also attempted to
show how (yes, I know this is a stretch) doing the
unpredictable can be very satisfying and often
worthwhile.

Which brings me (finally, you say) to the ever-present
defeatist culture that is being an NC State fan. Who
among us didn't have at least a hint of doubt that the
Pack was going to find a way to lose the game at
Clemson? Some in the local media - obviously non-State
grads or fans - stated that there was no way the Pack
would lose at Clemson. Ah ha! We Pack fans knew
better.

You know why? Predictability.

Fate, Karma, the gods, the odds or whatever has
dictated time and time and time again that as soon as
you think State (FILL IN THE SPORT NAME HERE) is on
its way to the top of the league, something extremely
unfortunate will happen. Let's call it Wendell
Murphy's 3rd Law: "Anything that can go wrong to the
beloved Wolfpack will go wrong."

There are almost too many examples to get into, but
I'd guess that every football and basketball schedule
since the early-1990s has at least one loss on it that
should never have happened. And usually those games
happen after a big win, after the newspapers are
crowing that the "Pack is Back!" And in most cases,
the losses happen when the Pack is "controlling its
own destiny," so to speak. In football one can look to
the 2002 season when an undefeated Pack team lost to
nemesis Georgia Tech at home in a heartbreaker. Or
even this past season when the Pack, thanks to Clemson
beating Florida State, had to beat FSU and Maryland to
claim first place in the conference but dropped both
in heartbreaking fashion. Or go back to several years
ago when NCSU football knocked off Florida State and
followed it up with a loss to Baylor. BAYLOR!?

And this isn't a "hindsight's 20/20" scenario. No less
than four NC State fans stated before last night's
game to me that they were either "scared to death,"
"not feeling good about it" or "expecting to lose" the
game.

The "whacky" and "crazy" thing that NC State could've
done against Clemson was to win. Now THAT would've
been unpredictable. And very satisfying.

'Now' Regular Season ACC Basketball
Standings
1. Duke: Blue Devils are not has dominating in ACC
play as they have been in the past; however, no one is
else is as good. 2. NC State: T'is better to drop a game that you
shouldn't in mid-February instead of in mid-March.3. Wake Forest: Deacs may be hitting their stride at
the right time.4. Georgia Tech: Yellow Jackets have the pieces to be
a Sweet Sixteen team, but will they jell enough to get
there?5. Florida State: Seminoles' tough upcoming schedule
may prevent them from staying in this position - or
even getting to the NCAA Tournament.6. North Carolina: The Tar Heels may make the
Selection Committee sweat a little.7. Maryland: Most experts predict seven ACC teams in
the Big Dance, but Terps have a tough road to hoe.8. Virginia: Amazingly enough, the Cavaliers seem to
be getting better - which is a very un-Pete
Gillen-like season.9. Clemson: In the dog-eat-dog world of ACC
basketball, someone has to be last. Unfortunately,
dogs don't really like cats.